The present invention relates in general to devices for dispensing food items and, more particularly, to a hand held manual cookie press.
Manual hand held extruding devices that dispense food items such as pasta or cookie dough are known in the art. The prior art extruding devices typically include a lever or handle that is used to advance a piston via a pawl or other latching piece that engages the teeth of a rod that is connected to the piston. Prior art extruding devices also typically use a spring to bias the latching piece towards engagement with the teeth on the rod.
As an example of such a device,. U.S. Pat. No. 4,456,450 to Heling illustrates a manual extruder having a cylinder with a movable piston rod disposed therein. The piston rod includes teeth positioned along opposing sides of the piston rod. An operating lever has two prongs that are positioned at the top of the cylinder. Each prong includes a pivot pin and a pawl which rotates about the pivot pin. The pawls contact the teeth on the piston rod. As the lever is depressed, the pawls engage the teeth on the piston rod to move the piston rod in a downward direction. As the lever is raised, the pawls engage the next highest tooth to enable the piston rod to advance during the downswing of the lever. This allows the piston rod to push the food substance out of the cylinder.
Another prior art device that uses a lever and pawls to advance a piston rod is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 972,793 issued to Allred. The Allred patent illustrates a mortar feeding device with a cylindrical body, two hand levers and a piston attached to a rod. The first hand lever is stationary with regard to the cylindrical body. A sleeve featuring external teeth covers and receives the rod. The device also includes two pivotally mounted pawls. The pawls are held in engagement with the teeth of the sleeve by springs. To discharge a substance from the cylinder, the second lever is raised so that the second pawl engages the next highest tooth on the sleeve. The sleeve is held stationary by the first pawl of the first lever as the second lever is raised. As the second lever is moved downward (towards the first lever), the sleeve is moved downwards which advances the piston downwards. As the sleeve moves downwards, the spring of the first pawl is compressed as the first pawl travels over a tooth of the sleeve. As such, while the second pawl is used to push the rod down, the first pawl serves as a lockout to restrain the rod from upward travel when the second lever is raised. The substance in the cylinder is forced out the bottom of the body when the second lever is pressed down.
Another prior art extruder that uses a lever and pawl to advance a piston is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,685,936 issued to Meth et al. The Meth patent illustrates a toy extruder that molds an object from a soft material. The device includes a body having a chamber therein with a movable piston positioned within the chamber and a handle pivotally connected to the body. One end of a spring is attached to a transverse pin in the piston and the second end of the spring is attached to the base of the housing. The piston includes teeth positioned along the outside surface. When the handle pivots in a clockwise direction, a pawl on the handle engages the teeth and imparts an upward movement to the piston. As a result, the piston moves upwardly within the chamber thereby pushing material out of the top of the chamber into a mold to form a toy.
The advancing mechanisms of the above prior art extruding devices require complex moving elements to properly advance the piston and the attached rod. Also, the prior art extruders are often difficult to refill with the material that is to be extruded.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a manual hand held device for extruding a food item that is easy to use.
It is another object of the invention to provide a manual hand held device with a simplified advancing mechanism that advances a plunger to push the food item out of the device.
It is another object of the invention to provide a manual hand held device for extruding a food item that is compact and easy to store.
The present invention is directed to an apparatus for dispensing a food substance, such as cookie dough. The apparatus is formed from a housing and a barrel connected to the housing. The barrel receives and stores the food substance. A plunger is slidably positioned within the barrel and a rod having teeth thereon is connected to the plunger. The apparatus also includes an advancing mechanism having an escapement body, a driver positioned within the escapement body and a spring that engages the driver and escapement body. The apparatus also includes a lever pivotally attached to the housing. The lever engages the advancing mechanism such that when the lever is depressed, the plunger advances to depress the food substance from the barrel.